Summary

Remove processing of the -Dsun.java.launcher.is_altjvm option.

Problem

The -Dsun.java.launcher.is_altjvm option was added via JDK-8027113 ("decouple the '-XXaltjvm=' option from the gamma launcher") to allow the gamma launcher to indicate it was not part of a regular JDK. This then caused the os::jvm_path() function to engage special logic to locate the JDK via the JAVA_HOME variable. Despite the name it was later found that the option has nothing to do with the -XXaltjvm option. See https://mail.openjdk.org/pipermail/hotspot-runtime-dev/2017-April/023241.html for more details.

Over time the gama launcher was removed and this option was used by the gtest launcher in a similar manner, though it was found that the logic behind it was buggy. Since then we added direct support for detecting that we are executing the unit tests and thus the -Dsun.java.launcher.is_altjvm option is no longer needed.

Solution

Remove processing of the -Dsun.java.launcher.is_altjvm option.

Specification

No specification per-se, the option is now simply ignored (and not used by anything within the JDK).